The present invention generally relates to wireless communication networks, and particularly relates to prioritizing voice communication over data communication in such networks.
Many wireless communication networks, such as cdma2000, offer a wide variety of services, such as high quality voice, data, video, interactive applications, etc. Evolving wireless communication networks provide a range of packet-based data services, while simultaneously providing support for the more traditional circuit-switched services such as voice and fax data. In such networks, the radio base stations carry user traffic for both circuit-switched (voice) and packet-switched (data) users. Thus, voice and data users share the base station's limited resources, such as its available forward link transmit power and its pool of assignable CDMA spreading codes (e.g., the available Walsh codes).
Several issues arise in the context of base station resource sharing between voice and data users. For example, most data services are relatively delay insensitive and data traffic commonly is transmitted intermittently as needed, rather than continuously streamed. Contrastingly, voice services represent real-time services that require instantaneous transmission, and are relatively delay sensitive. Voice services also require a high-grade of service, such as a low call blocking rate, and a relatively low frame error rate (FER). Further, service providers typically garner larger revenues from voice services than from data services. As a result, there is an economic incentive for service providers to ensure that packet data services do not compromise the network's ability to offer high quality voice service.
Static voice-over-data prioritization is one solution meant to address the above sharing issues, and is adopted in at least some conventional wireless communication networks. Static prioritization of voice over data may be based on setting a higher call-blocking (admission) threshold for voice users than for data users with respect to a shared resource. For example, the blocking threshold for data users might be set at a first usage level (e.g., ninety percent), while the call-blocking threshold for voice users is set at a second, higher usage level (e.g., ninety-five percent). Similar schemes involve reserving a fixed amount of power for voice users, or involve using separate carriers, one for voice and one for data.
All such schemes tend to be inefficient because of the static nature of the prioritization schemes. That is, such schemes build in a preference for voice service that disadvantages data users even if the actual resource usage by voice users, or by the combination of voice and data users, is low.